


Keeping Secrets

by themaimevent



Category: The Originals (TV)
Genre: Dad!Marcel, Davina and Marcel being a cute lil family, Fluff, Gen, Mentions of Suicide (Non-Graphic)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 05:41:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30117999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themaimevent/pseuds/themaimevent
Summary: Something’s up with Davina, and Marcel needs to get to the bottom of it. Even if she won’t tell him what’s going on.
Relationships: Davina Claire & Marcel Gerard
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	Keeping Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a friend's birthday, and also @hellotvshowtrash's #march2021promptchallenge over on tumblr.

Something’s up with Davina.

Marcel had gone to visit her in the attic that night, like he does every night, and she’d been off. He’d asked her about her day and she’d told him that it was “fine”. Which wouldn’t be odd, except every other night she’d tell him about every mundane task she completed within the confines of the attic. She avoided eye contact, bit her lip, kept her normally excited body language subdued. 

Marcel knows better than to ask a teenage girl what’s wrong (he’s loved Rebekah Mikaelson long enough to have learned that lesson a few times over), so he just tells his guys to check in on Davina a little more, and prays that will be enough.

It’s not enough. Every time he sees Davina it feels like the rift between them is growing. She stays vague about her daily activities, deflecting questions about her with questions about him; what’s his favorite restaurant in the city or what his favorite album is. It’s flattering, really, that she cares to know these things about him, but he can’t help but feel there’s something more she’s not telling him. Sometimes it feels like she’s trying to get him to leave when he’s there, a far cry from begging him to stay a couple minutes longer mere weeks ago. And she’s agitated, angry. The deadline for the harvest is fast approaching, and with it seems to come mood swings that even Marcel (who spent a century trying to date Rebekah Mikaelson) can’t keep up with. 

She asks him if she can have a sleepover with Josh (the baby-vamp she’s bonded with), and Marcel eagerly agrees. He’s climbing the stairs to the church attic when he hears it.

“This plan of yours is going to get us killed,” Josh tells her, anxious energy dripping from every word.

“But you’re in, right?”

Josh sighs, dramatically. “Of course I’m in.”

Marcel tries to be rational about this. Josh is too nervous to really do anything dangerous, and too eager to level up in Marcel’s eyes to let Davina do anything dangerous. Davina wouldn’t jeopardize her safety to do anything, right?

Marcel delivers the pizza with a smile on his face, and doesn’t mention it.

But still, it gnaws at him. If Marcel is familiar with one thing, it’s trauma. He’d been exposed to violence at a young age, first as a slave and then as the ward of a family of vampires. He could still vividly remember the soldiers he’d fought with coming home with what they called “shellshock”. He could still vividly remember finding out that a few of his comrades had taken their own lives. He goes through a mental tally of Davina’s behavior as of late:  _ not speaking much, lack of enjoyment in hobbies they once loved, angry and violent outbursts,  _ and, based on tonight’s conversation with Josh,  _ reckless behavior _ . He knows what they’re signs of.

He calls Cami first thing the next morning.

She tells him that he’s being overprotective, but agrees to offer her support to Davina.

Marcel’s breaking point comes about a month after he first noticed something was up with Davina. He walks into the church with a tub of ice cream and two spoons in hand. He’d told Davina that he couldn’t come visit her tonight, but his “meeting” with Rebekah had wrapped early and he’d been so worried about her recently. The thought of her being alone too often didn’t sit right with him.

So he enters the church, a tub of her favorite ice cream and two plastic spoons in hand, and hears noise from the attic. Groaning, like heavy furniture being pushed around.

He doesn’t know what it means but he runs up the stairs at top vamp speed, pushing the door open.

The sight in front of him is not what he expected to see.

Josh and Cami stand on chairs on opposite sides of the room, holding what looks like a banner between them. Davina stands between them, a little ways back, clearly directing them on hanging it straight. All three of them are looking at Marcel over their shoulders, sheepish expressions on their faces.

“Uh, happy birthday, I guess,” Josh says. Davina shoots him a glare and he responds with a silent “what?” shrug.

_ What? _ Marcel thinks.

“ _ What? _ ” Marcel says out loud.

Davina looks at him, wide-eyed.

“A month ago, I asked about your birthday and you said you didn’t really celebrate it any more.”

Marcel nodded, uncharacteristically awkward as he took in the scene before him. There was an old phonograph on the table where Davina’s record player usually sat. The floor looked like it had been swept, and maybe even polished, for the first time in a century. Every piece of furniture appeared to have been dusted, and on the vanity sat two gift-wrapped boxes.

“I know I should’ve told you that Cami and Josh were coming over tonight but then you would’ve known something was up and-”

“I thought you were gonna hurt yourself,” Marcel finally spoke.

Davina’s eyes go wide. 

“ _ What _ ?”

Cami, who had dismounted from the chair she was stood on, gave Marcel her typical knowing look.

“I think maybe these two need to talk,” she said. “C’mon, Josh.”

She took the ice cream from Marcel’s hand and pulled the young vampire out of the room.

“You’ve been acting differently lately. And I know you’ve been through a lot and I didn’t want to try and force you to talk to me, so I’ve been sending the guys around to check on you and trying to get Cami and Josh to come around a little more.”

“That’s what that was about?” 

Davina looks like she’s about to cry. Marcel takes this as a sign that he’s definitely messed up somehow. He’s distracted thinking about his next move when he feels Davina’s arms around him.

“Thank you,” she whispers, so quiet he could only hear it due to his vampirism. “For worrying about me.”

He squeezes her tight and then pulls back.

“Of course I worry about you,” he says, eyes looking directly into hers. “Especially when you’re conspiring to plan a party behind my back.”

Davina turns as pink as her ballet flats. 

“We don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. I know birthdays haven’t really been your thing this past millennium.”

Marcel laughs, a softer one reserved for moments of actual mirth.

“What, after you did all this?” he smiled at the young witch. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Davina smiles. And, while Marcel clearly isn’t good at reading Davina’s mind, he’s pretty sure he knows what it means.

  
  



End file.
